Areas typically covered include:

Laboratory instrumentation such as oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, and LabVIEW

RC and RLC filters

Diode rectifiers and clamps

Bipolar junction transistor amps and current sources

Field-effect transistor amps and switches

Operations amplifier circuits

Comparators, Schmitt triggers, and oscillators

Voltage regulators, references, and silicon-controlled rectifiers

Construction of digital gates using transistors

Automatic data acquisition and display using LabVIEW

Technical communication

Group Work

Student groups also build and demonstrate a student-proposed project at the end of the semester. Students work in groups of 2 or 3 at one of a dozen lab stations each consisting of the following equipment:

PC's loaded with NI ELVIS software for control of the ELVIS workstation, along with National Instruments LabVIEW, and Microsoft Word and Exce

In EE Lab 2, students build, test, and experiment with more advanced analog circuits. The lab draws on material covered in EE 4313 Electronic Circuits 2 along with a few ideas from EE 3213 Electromagnetic Engineering.

Areas typically covered include:

Active-filter design and implementation

Power-amp design and construction

Basic printed circuit board layout and construction

Circuit board parasitics

RF oscillator design and implementation

RF mixer design and implementation

RF filter design and implementation

More advanced use of common laboratory instrumentation, including oscilloscopes, function generators, and spectrum analyzers

Circuit simulation with OrCAD Capture and PSpice, and layout with OrCAD Layout

Technical communication

The course is based around the design and implementation of two printed circuit boards, one an audio power amp and the other an RF mixer. Students learn real-world skills when measuring and debugging these circuits.

Group Work

Students work in groups of 2 or 3 at one of eight lab stations each consisting of the following equipment:

Agilent 54615B dual-channel 500MHz oscilloscope

PC's loaded with OrCAD Capture and Layout, along with Microsoft Word and Excel

Wavetek Model 395 arbitrary function generator

Agilent E4411B 1.5GHz spectrum analyzer

Courses in this Lab

EE 3223 C++ Data Structures

EE 3463 Microcomputer Systems I

EE 4583 Microcomputer Systems II

Description

The Computer Engineering Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio supports a complete academic learning experience of the computer engineering program starting at the freshman level and going all the way to the doctoral level courses. It houses 26 PCs, including one for an instructor. Each of these PCs is equipped with several development/evaluation kits and supporting software.

The development kits include:

Infinity kit for the Introduction to Electrical Engineering (freshman-level course)

Xilinx Virtex-II Pro based development kits for Senior, Graduate, and Doctoral level courses with advanced topics such as Embedded Systems, Real-time Operating Systems.

The Microprocessor-based courses use FreeScale microcontroller-based kits. The hardware is supplemented with the state-of-the-art integrated software development suits. The laboratory is partially supported by FreeScale and Xilinx through equipment and development kits donations.

UTSA Mission
The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property – for Texas, the nation and the world.

UTSA Vision
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.